Airplanes, and particularly commercial airplanes, make use Engine Anti-Ice (EAI) systems to melt ice from their engine cowlings. In a typical EAI system, an electro-pneumatic controller controls an EAI valve and position of the EAI valve. The EAI valve in turn controls hot bleed air that is used to heat or melt ice from an engine inlet lip.
A problem with EAI systems is contamination of the electro-pneumatic controller. The electro-pneumatic controller can become contaminated with de-icing fluid and dirt. Typical solutions to this problem include adding an orifice in the EAI ducting system, to drain the liquid and debris out of the EAI system. The existing solution depends on the gravity forces to drain the liquid/debris. The existing solution has very low collection efficiency, and can result in clogged liquid and debris discharge opening of the orifice, which can lead to contaminating the EAI controller components downstream of the orifice, with liquid and debris. After some time, using the existing solution can result in EAI system failure. Such failure may require removal cleaning and reinstallation of several EAI system components, including the drainage system. This is time consuming and can lead to downtime of a commercial airplane resulting in loss in revenue to an airline.